The Recycling Partnership launches new labeling platform

The Recycling Partnership (TRP), Washington, is launching a new package-specific labeling platform called Recycle Check to provide up-to-date recycling information directly to U.S. consumers.

Recycle Check allows consumers to enter a zip code or allow location permissions and receive a yes or no answer about whether to recycle a specific item in that area. TRP says the platform also enables consumer brands to navigate the “complex recycling landscape” and reduce label changes as well as leverage existing labeling systems.

The platform is powered by TRP’s national recycling database that centralizes up-to-date recycling access data from more than 9,000 U.S. community programs which cover 97 percent of the population. The organization says that by connecting local information with brand and package-specific details, Recycle Check allows a new level of communication that evolves with the changing recycling landscape, either on a company’s website, app or as a QR code on a physical packaging label.

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The platform covers all residential recyclables, including paper, plastics, metal and glass.

“Eight in 10 people believe in recycling’s positive impact, yet two-thirds of household recyclables are wasted each year,” TRP Chief Innovation Officer Sarah Dearman says, adding that the fragmented U.S. recycling system creates high variability in what is collected and recycled locally. “Meanwhile, new state-level packaging policies are changing requirements for recyclability claims.”

Recycle Check was designed to complement existing labeling systems, and TRP says it is collaborating with Charlottesville, Virginia-based environmental nonprofit GreenBlue and early adopters of the platform to pilot use of the How2Recycle label and the Recycle Check QR code together on product packaging.

TRP also says it is working closely with the Consumer Brands Association to offer Recycle Check through its SmartLabel program.

“The Recycling Partnership is the recognized leader in the recycling database space and Recycle Check is an elegant solution for GreenBlue’s How2Recycle and the partnership to collaborate simply and with greater connectivity,” GreenBlue Executive Director Paul Nowak says. “By connecting consumers to local data and leveraging the country’s most recognized on-pack recycling instructions, we are truly creating an inclusive, best-of-both-worlds solution that demonstrates collaboration at scale is possible.”

General Mills and Horizon Organic are early adopters of Recycle Check by using labels to provide local recycling information on packaging. Later this year, TRP says General Mills will feature Recycle Check with the How2Recycle label on its Pillsbury Frozen Pie Crust packaging. Because aluminum pie trays are only accepted in approximately 40 percent of residential curbside programs, the QR code provides clarity on where the item is accepted, the organization says.

Horizon Organic is including Recycle Check alongside the How2Recycle label on select milk carton, encouraging consumers to determine local access to carton recycling, which is growing across the country, the company says.

“As a brand that looks toward a better future for all, we are excited to be part of Recycle Check,” Horizon Organic General Manager Tyler Holm says. “By providing easy access and education on local recycling options for our milk cartons, we are hopeful that even more consumers will support the movement to recycle and join us in helping to protect the one horizon we all share.